lovestrippedbare | 𝕖𝕟𝕖𝕣𝕘𝕚𝕔𝕠

It's funny, Yoongi thinks, what things trigger which reactions. He's not the least bit embarrassed about what they did in the bathroom, but thinking of Jungkook in public, licking sugar from his fingers, brings a flush to his cheeks, as much because of how he reacted back in December as anything else. Thankfully, standing like this, Jungkook's back flush against his chest, it's easy to hide that.

"As long as I can lick it off," he teases, voice kept low. "But I like anything I can lick off your fingers." He tries not to let himself think about that too much, though, not when there's still plenty of this place he wants to see. There are children pressing up against the glass alongside them, and his gaze drops to a little boy trying to wave a toy at the fish through the window. He smiles, watching him wriggle the stuffed crocodile emphatically against the glass, trailing it up and down to catch the fishes' attention. It's enough to distract him from anything dirty-minded for the moment, too charmed by the innocence of the moment for that.

"Anything?" Jungkook asks, soft and slightly skeptical. He can think of a million ways to exploit that comment if he wanted, things that he could smear onto his skin that are far less pleasant than sugar. Even things that he gets on his skin on a regular basis, no teasing required — like the paints from art class, or the way his hands look after a muddy gym day.

Though that's dipping further into semantics than Jungkook cares to, right now. Especially when he turns around and finds Yoongi watching a little boy playing up against the window, one who's almost jamming a stuffed crocodile against the glass. For some reason, Jungkook's always found it easier to picture Yoongi engaging with a little girl, but the grin on his face makes it clear that Yoongi can easily find the charm in rambunctious little boys as well.

They're probably too young for Jungkook's chest to ache as much as it does, but he's glad for the feeling, giving Yoongi's hand a little squeeze. Someday, he thinks to himself. They'll get there.

Yoongi glances over at Jungkook to find him watching him in return, the flush on his cheeks spreading. At least it's fairly dim in the aquarium and he doesn't have to be embarrassed over blushing at being caught out watching kids. They're just so cute; there's something magical about the way children take on the world, as if anything is possible. He'd thought that feeling had died out in him, but these days, he can feel it flickering back to life. They have everything ahead of them, a lifetime of discovery and love, and someday some sweet little child of their own.

"He's cute," he says, the question forgotten, his hand rubbing soft circles against Jungkook's back. "They all are." He huffs out a soft laugh. "I bet you were adorable. A little terror, though." It's easy to imagine Jungkook being so fascinated by the world that he gets himself into trouble, stumbling into messes and adventures, the kind of kid who toddles off when his mother's not looking for half a second. Hell, it's easy enough to imagine him doing that now, never mind as a child.

For a moment, Jungkook finds himself caught on the soft flush of Yoongi's cheeks, pleasantly pink against his otherwise pale complexion, and it's hard not to be excited about everything that the next ten years holds for them — because ten years seems like a reasonable amount of time to wait before potentially adding kids to the mix. By that time, Yoongi will be thirty, Jungkook twenty-six, and both of those ages seem relatively mature, and advanced enough that both of them will probably have completed their time in the military. At least one of them should have a pretty defined career by then, Jungkook expects.

But before he can comment, Jungkook realizes the shade that's been thrown his way, and he blinks before feigning the most offended look possible.

"I was an absolute angel, thank you very much," he counters, which is a flat-out lie. Jungkook's pretty sure that before his father passed away, he was both loud and demanding, as one might expect from an only child who's been doted on. "All you had to do was point me to a playground and I'd be set." Jungkook narrows his eyes, staring at Yoongi thoughtfully. "Meanwhile, I wouldn't be surprised if you, like... I don't know, stopped by every busker and told them they were playing their instruments off-key."

There's such a sweetness to Jungkook's expression, and then it's gone, disappearing behind a façade of dismay that leaves Yoongi laughing. "Sure you were," he says. "And I never." Granted, it's only his better judgment that keeps him from doing so now, at least when the buskers are old enough to know better. As a child, though, he thinks he must have been sweeter.

"Actually, I loved buskers," he says thoughtfully. "I used to drag my parents over and make them stop to listen." That may not be completely true. He's not sure. He knows they would stop a lot, but maybe that was his mother's idea sometimes, as much as it was his own. They were so inseparable when he was little that he's hard-pressed to distinguish between their decisions when it comes to how they spent their time. "Though I do remember falling asleep on the piano once because I wouldn't go to bed." He'd insisted he wasn't tired, but he absolutely had been.

It's easy to picture Yoongi dragging his parents — probably his mother — over to a busker, especially if they were playing an instrument. Pianos and keyboards are a rarer sight among street performers, but Jungkook knows that as much as the piano is Yoongi's favorite, his appreciation for music extends far beyond any single instrument or genre. He can easily imagine Yoongi, a little smaller, a little rounder in the face, lingering long enough to commit a melody to memory.

But he outright whines when Yoongi mentions falling asleep on the piano, wrapping his arms around Yoongi's middle, pinning his arms against his waist. "Ahh, you're not allowed to tell me cute things like that while we're out in public," Jungkook whines, pouting even as he drops his forehead against Yoongi's shoulder, smiling from ear to ear. "Of course you'd fall asleep on the piano. Of course. Not watching TV, not reading books under your cover. The piano."

Yoongi laughs, curling his fingers in Jungkook's shirt. He's so fucking cute, curled close, his breath warm against Yoongi's shoulder. All Yoongi wants is to hold him a while, but he's content like this, too, held in place as Jungkook pouts adorably. For the moment, the children surrounding them are entirely forgotten.

"Oh, I did those, too," he says. In retrospect, he's never been very good at sleeping when he's supposed to, even before his nights were plagued by self-doubt and overthinking. He has trouble remembering specific incidents for most such occasions, but he knows he insisted on staying up too late too many times. "But the piano is probably the least comfortable thing to fall asleep on. It's a good thing they carried me off before I had key prints embedded in my face."

"You'd be cute even with key prints on your face," Jungkook decides, pulling back slightly to assess Yoongi's face, imagining how it'd look with a few lines drawn down his cheek. He reaches out with his fingers, playing a few notes across Yoongi's cheek and ending with his pinky tapping Yoongi's earlobe.

He lets Yoongi go afterward, reaching down between them for Yoongi's hand and tugging them a little further down the length of the tank. He can't remember why they're here at this specific spot anymore, but with so much time ahead of them this weekend, there's no rush. It's not long before Jungkook finds a couple of bright orange fish weaving in and out between a series of stacked stones, and he crouches to get a better look. There's something playful about the movement, and Jungkook tilts his head along, sharp little motions that mimic the quick flick of their tails.

Yoongi rolls his eyes at the notion, though it's mostly for show. He likes being told things like that anyway, however saccharine or ridiculous they might sometimes be. There's a pleasure, a warmth, in being appreciated exactly as he is or would be — not even wanted, just appreciated. It's still silly, but it's a sweet kind of silly.

He follows along as they move down the hall, following Jungkook's lead to kneel down in front of some bright fish, though his attention soon turns to Jungkook and trying to hold back a laugh. Sometimes there's an unguardedness to Jungkook that Yoongi envies as much as he loves it. It's charming and it's not something he has much of, unless surrounded by friends. Letting loose around the others is easy, but this isn't for him, mimicking fish in public. But it's Jungkook and he loves that.

"Are those clownfish?"

"I... think so?" Jungkook says, tilting his head a little uncertainly as his eyes trail after the fish. Some of them look a little big to be clownfish, and they don't have the large stripes down their bodies, but the few that linger by the stones definitely have the same appearance that Jungkook remembers seeing from Finding Nemo. "That one looks bigger than the clownfish, and its cheeks are kind of puffed out. But those ones are definitely like Nemo."

As soon as he says it, Jungkook blinks to find a few more kids crowding in, pressing their hands and faces up against the glass and repeating the name to their parents. Jungkook quickly backs up and out of the way, laughing as he reaches for Yoongi's hand to help himself back up to his feet.

"Wow, I guess that's the magic word," he grins, scratching at the back of his neck. "Bet those movies really pushed more kids to visit the aquarium."

Yoongi stifles a laugh against his hand, grinning as he steps back away from the swarm of children. They may not all be clownfish, but it doesn't matter. Some of them are, and the suggestion of it is enough to bring all the children as close to the glass as they can get.

"That's nice," he says, entirely sincere as he heads further down the hall. "More interest in this kind of stuff is a good thing." He doesn't know a ton about fish, except that they look cool, but getting kids interested younger means more people interested in conservation and stuff, he figures. "Oh! Over here." He tugs at Jungkook's hand, leading him down a darker stretch of hallway to a tank that's glowing faintly, jellyfish bobbing silently through the water. He wouldn't want to encounter one in the wild, but in the dim light, their translucent skin faintly pink and iridescent, they're undeniably cool.

Jungkook perks up immediately when Yoongi directs them down the hall, pleased to be headed in a direction that's to Yoongi's liking and curious to see what lies at the end of the line. His eyes light up even further when he notices the jellyfish, large and impossibly intricate, floating slowly through the water with their curly tendrils moving with the natural waves in the water.

Slinging an arm around the back of Yoongi's waist, Jungkook pulls him closer, his lips slightly parted in awe as he stares up at a jellyfish hovering near the top of the tank.

"They look so... delicate," Jungkook remarks, tilting his head. "And a lot prettier down here than when they wash up onto the beach. I wonder why their bodies are all... I don't know, curly and almost lacy? They look like really fancy umbrellas."

Even with as interested as Yoongi is in the jellyfish, he can't help stealing little glances at Jungkook. The light here is really pretty, even if it's dim, and Jungkook seems to him to glow almost as much as the jellyfish do. Even that's an illusion, he's pretty sure; he can't recall anything he's ever read saying jellyfish actually glow. But still, everything here is beautiful and, for a moment, suspended in time.

He cracks a smile at the comparison, head tipping to the side as he eyes the jellyfish, imagining them as fancy little cocktail umbrellas or parasols. "There has to be some kind of advantage to it, right?" he asks. "That's how nature works. But you'd think being that... delicate, that translucent, would be a disadvantage. Or maybe predators can't see them very well?" He wonders what even eats a jellyfish when so many of them sting. Seals, maybe. Slipping an arm over Jungkook's shoulders, he reaches out with his other hand to touch the glass. "Maybe it's easier to get away."

"Or maybe prey can't see them very well," Jungkook suggests, arching his brow excitedly at the sudden stroke of genius. That has to be it, Jungkook thinks. If there's a type of fish or sea creature with vision that isn't as good as theirs, he could easily picture it wafting into the general reach of the jellyfish, close enough to get stung. "I guess it's possible that predators also can't see them well, and then it's up to the jellyfish to like, sting it somehow. But the prey, I really bet that's what this thinness is best for."

Jungkook tilts his head, leaning close enough that his forehead presses against Yoongi's temple, raising his own hand to trace along Yoongi's knuckles. "They almost look too pretty to eat, don't they? I think my grandma used to say that jellyfish are delicious, so I bet you can get them out here. But now I won't be able to get this one out of my head," he muses.

There's an excitement in the suggestion that Yoongi finds endearing, and he finds he can reconcile that idea better with the jellyfish's apparent delicacy. It seems harmless and practically invisible; of course that would lend itself to getting close to prey before they realize what's happening.

"They're beautiful," he agrees. He doesn't know if this particular species is especially poisonous, but it's fascinating to imagine something this pretty being so dangerous. With Jungkook nestled close against him, he closes his eyes a moment, seeing light trails against the backs of his eyelids. "I don't think I could eat one either." He's pretty sure he'd be worried the poison was still in it anyway, which is ridiculous when undoubtedly anyone who cooks these creatures would know how to do so well. "Not a lot there to eat anyway."

Jungkook looks further down the hall, glancing over the signs and reaching for Yoongi's hand, tugging him gently in the general direction of the sharks. He's pretty sure that he remembers sting rays being in the general area as well, at least in other aquariums that he's visited — sting rays swimming alongside some of the smaller, tamer varieties of shark.

"Well, we'll keep jellyfish off of our to-eat list for now, then," Jungkook reasons, bringing his arm back up behind Yoongi's waist, keeping his steps slow so they never have to break from being at each other's sides. "Though if we do more wading along the beach and one ends up stinging me, I'll probably take back everything I've said and eat one out of spite."

A bit of an exaggeration. Maybe.

"Please don't get stung," Yoongi says wryly. "I have no idea what to do if something like that happens." He knows people say to pee on it but he's pretty sure that's some kind of legend, not actual, helpful advice. "You'd be flailing around while I tried to look it up on my phone." Still, if — when — they go back to the beach, that won't keep him away from the water. If anything does, it'll be Jungkook distracting him on the shore.

He looks up at the signs as they walk, smiling when he recognizes which way they're headed — not with any real speed, still slow enough for him to look into the tanks as they go, but definitively in the direction of the sharks. That's one of the things he likes about zoos and aquariums. He'd never want to meet some of these creatures face to face, but put up some fencing or a sheet of glass and he can get close enough to marvel at their grandeur.

Giving Yoongi a long, solemn glance, Jungkook presses his lips thinly together and then shakes his head. "Yoongi-ah," he says, tone carefully even as he raises his hand to squeeze Yoongi's shoulder. "It's okay if you need to pee on my foot. I think our connection is deep enough that I would not hold it against you." He tries to keep a straight face, but ends up snickering not long after — there's really no way of knowing whether or not peeing on a venomous sting will do anything at all, but the thought is a funny one. Even if Jungkook's pretty sure the attempt would get them reprimanded for public indecency before anything else.

He's still biting on his lower lip to keep his volume down as they make their way to the shark-filled tanks at last. A few of them stretch from floor to ceiling, opening them to an endless swath of blue, but it's the open-air tank that Jungkook tugs the both of them towards first, willing to bet that the gathered crowd is waiting on an opportunity to interact directly with the specimens in the tank.

"Yah," Yoongi exclaims, but he can't hold back his own laughter at the idea of it. "You'd better not, since I'd be doing it to save you." He has no desire or intention of pulling his dick out in public and getting in trouble for it, but he can't pretend he wouldn't, if it came down to it, if that actually had any real protective effect. He's pretty sure it doesn't.

In the next moment, though, all his attention is drawn to the massive tanks, his eyes wide as he gazes into them, letting Jungkook lead him so he can keep looking back. "Ah, they're so cool," he says. "Look at them." There's a crowd at one of the tanks and he's not sure what they're looking at, exactly, but he's excited as they approach, craning his neck to try and peer around them.

As impressive as the tanks are, Jungkook finds himself much more taken by the look of awe on Yoongi's face, the way that he cranes his neck and his eyes widen to consume every detail. It isn't often that Yoongi appears so unguarded, Jungkook thinks. He's usually the more collected one of the two, the one who's much more careful about making sure they stay on track as a pair. Letting Yoongi take a moment now to revel in the exhibit seems like a no-brainer, and Jungkook's expression softens as he watches his boyfriend, biting down the temptation to press a kiss to his cheek.

He'd take a picture if he thought he could get away with it without Yoongi noticing.

As it is, they end up making their way to the open tank instead, Jungkook lingering half a step behind as Yoongi's excitement pushes him forward. "Ah," Jungkook exclaims softly, seeing the ripple of sting rays in the water. "Looks like we found them."

Yoongi feels like a little kid suddenly, delighted by the possibility of getting to touch these creatures, who look incredibly cool as they glide through the shallow water. "Ah, there they are," he says, giving Jungkook's hand a soft squeeze. They'll have to wait their turn — and there are a couple of kids ahead of them who seem likely to take their time, which Yoongi can't fault them for the way he would if it were an adult — but it seems well worth it. "I had a feeling we'd find them."

In the meanwhile, he glances back at the sharks. They'll give them a better look, he decides, once they've had their chance with the sting rays. "They look kind of rubbery," he says, unaccountably pleased about it. "I wonder if they feel that way too. They seem pretty gentle, too." The kids don't seem to be having any trouble with them, at least.

It's fairly rare for Jungkook to see Yoongi as excited as this, almost buzzing with energy as he lines up behind kids about half their size, easily glancing over their heads to watch the rays even from a distance. Already, Jungkook finds himself wondering what it is exactly about the sting rays that has caught Yoongi's attention so deeply — more than any of the animals that they'd seen at the zoo only months before. Something about the movement, perhaps, Jungkook muses to himself. Rays and jellyfish both have an almost ethereal quality to the way they move, gliding and floating through the water, making it look entirely effortless.

"They do look really gentle," Jungkook agrees, leaning in to bump his lips briefly against the side of Yoongi's head, a subtle sort of kiss that shouldn't draw undue attention. Not that anyone's staring much at them here, Jungkook thinks, when they're all clearly lined up with the goal of petting the rays. "And yeah, the way they flap around kind of looks like rubber... but would they really feel that way? I guess I don't know what they feel like, or sharks. Toys are super smooth, but then when you think of fish, you think of scales, right? Are there actually fish out there that have... just skin?"

Yoongi beams at the tiny kiss, eyes fluttering briefly shut, almost more at the idea of the gesture than the touch itself. He longs so deeply for a day when they can be as openly affectionate as they want to be, as obviously in love as any other couple they've seen walking past. For now, though, little things have come to mean everything.

"I don't think so," he says, considering Jungkook's question. "But they don't look scaly." That doesn't mean they aren't, though. "Maybe they're just really tiny scales." He feels a bit like a kid himself, as if he's gone back in time to an age when he loved the ocean for its creatures as much as for what it meant to him and his friends as a place of escape. Still, watching the kids in front of them helps make passing the time easier, and he stifles a laugh as a tiny girl draws her hand back from the water with a shriek of laughter before reaching back in. "Like sharks, right? They're fish. They have to have scales, too."

"Yeah, really tiny or like, I don't know, shaped some other way that makes them more aerodynamic? ...wait, that isn't right," Jungkook says, scrunching up his face, one eye shutting as he reflects. "Whatever the water-based equivalent of aerodynamic is." He's not versed enough in animal anatomy to really guess at what kind or shape of scales might be best for achieving the fluidity of a sting ray's movements, but his mind starts to muse over a number of different possibilities. Needle-like scales? Flexible scales?

As he ponders, Jungkook raises a hand up to the back of Yoongi's head, idly scratching at Yoongi's scalp and running his fingers through the hair.

"Man, I can't even imagine what sharks feel like. They always look... rubbery or slimy. But maybe that's totally wrong, maybe they're all rough and we just don't know it because none of us really get close enough to touch one. Especially not bare-handed," Jungkook muses. Seeing some of the aquarium workers swimming through the tanks has him wondering how fun it might be to go scuba diving, even though Jungkook suspects they don't have enough money saved up for that right now.

"I mean, there are marine biologists," Yoongi counters. "Some of them have to have touched sharks, so the information has to be somewhere." Which is, in a way, beside the point. They could take out their phones and search for this kind of stuff, but it's much more fun to discuss it and come to their own conclusions. "They look really smooth, though." Whether or not this is actually the case is hard to say. They're fish, too. Fish, as a rule, aren't as smooth as they look.

Leaning his head back into Jungkook's hand, he glances over and smiles. "But then, penguins don't look very feathery and they are. So who knows?" Nature is strange and wild and full of surprises. The mystery of what a stingray feels like, at least, is one they can solve soon. Yoongi slips an arm around Jungkook's waist, watching as they step closer.

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